Foundation gives succour to the sick

Irked by the inability of 17 indigent patients who received medical treatment at the Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (FETHA), Ebonyi State, the Divine Care Global Community Initiative (DCGCI), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has paid their hospital bills of over N483, 000.

The patients, who had stayed in the hospitals for between two and six months after their cure and subsequent discharge due to lack of money to offset their medical bills, resigned to fate before the NGO came to their aid and brought succour to them.

Many of the patients who came from various parts of the state as well as Cross River State were in the plastic surgery and orthopedic wards of the hospital.

They were treated of various ailments and were given between N30, 000 and N100,000 bills. But due to lack of money, they were hanging around the hospital waiting for money to clear their bills before they could go home.

The NGO, through the management of FETHA, cleared their hospital bills totaling over N.960 million as the hospital gave them 50 per cent rebate. The gesture enabled the NGO to go home.

While handing over the cheque of over N483, 000 to the Chief Medical Director of FETHA Dr. Paul Ezeonu, the National Coordinator of the NGO, Deacon Dandi Odii praised the hospital management for slashing the hospital bills by 50 per cent.

He said the programme started nine years ago when he went to pray for the sick at the hospital. Then he realised that some of the patients were discharged from the hospital but could not afford to pay for their hospital bills. Their situation touched him and he began to think of how to get them out of the hospital. That, he said, brought the idea of the NGO.

Odii said he decided to do charity work to serve humanity through the NGO.

“With the support of friends as well as the foundation’s major financer, Mr. Ken Ojiri of Ken Ojiri Foundation, the programme had been sustained since last year,” he said.

The Coordinator also revealed that 25 indigent patients were discharged through the NGO last year, adding that they were released in Federal Teaching Hospitals Abakaliki and Federal Medical Centre Owerri. One of the patients was delivered of a triplet.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Sunday Nwangele praised the vision and humanitarian service rendered to the indigent patients by the NGO, even as he urged other individuals and organisations to emulate the gesture.

Represented by the Director of Public Health, Dr. Chris Archi, Dr Nwangele said it was good to give than to receive, adding that God loves a cheerful giver.

He stressed that the NGO, over the years, has been giving succour to poor patients, praying God to reward their services.

He said: “Charity work is not only for the politicians but for everybody in the society. This is because the measure you give is the measure you will be given or receive. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to help others while we are alive because we don’t know who will enjoy our wealth after death.”

While receiving the cheque for the payment of the hospital bills for the indigent patients, Dr. Ezeonu praised the NGO for its gesture, saying that it had set a pace for others to follow.

“I hope other NGOs and politicians would emulate the gesture by setting up centres which could give succour to the poor in the society and which would be named after them. This is the only way they can give back to the society what they received or benefited from it. I know the plight of some patients in the hospital. Some of them can not pay their bills no matter how little due to poverty,” he said.

Ezeonu further urged Christian associations to emulate what the NGO did by paying off bills of poor people in the hospitals. He noted that when he saw the need to help the poor in the hospital, he slashes their bills by 50 per cent.

The patients expressed their gratitude to the NGO for paying their hospitals bills. They prayed God to grant those behind the NGO their heart desires.

Seventy-year-old woman, Mrs. Grace Aloh from Ohaozara Local Government Area who had been in the hospital for three months after her discharge, described the intervention of the NGO as a saving grace because no help was coming from anywhere. She was full of joy and happiness, even as she sang praises to God in appreciation of what God has done for her through the NGO.

Another patient, a10-year-old Joel Nwuzor from Izzi Local Government Area was abandoned in the hospital by his parents for six months.

According to the management of the hospital, the boy was brought to the hospital by his mother who later abandoned him for about six months.

Others such as Josephine Odey, Theresa Ogar and Philomena Njap all from Cross River State thanked the NGO for coming to their rescue.

They came to the hospital because of one aliment or the other but being treated, there was no money to settle their bills. They, therefore, remained in the hospital for between two and five months before the intervention of the NGO.

Also Moses Ude from Izzi Local Government Area was billed N38, 000, Monday Nweke from Ikwo was billed N70, 000, Uchechukwu Ofoke from Izzi was billed N45, 000, Steven Ogodo from Ikwo was billed N91, 000, Bernard Nworie was billed N99, 000 and John Unoke was billed N41, 000. Their medical bills were paid by the NGO.

They prayed God to guide and protect the members of the NGO and as well reward them